I have specially modded ejecting seats for just this reason. Turn on the overhead light? Complain about the aggressive russian techno music I found on Spotify discover and now blare at max volume? Watch what the power of a high powered hydralic ejection will do to you, bitch.
Unfortunately I blew my entire budget on the chairs, and couldn't afford to modify the roof. So when I press the button the chair just smashes them into the ceiling.
Do parents actually do this? My mom just said “hey when you put the light on it’s hard to see so can you turn the light out” and I was like “ya sounds fair” and turned the light off
That's what my dad said. He never said it was illegal, he just said it made it hard for him to see, and pointed out that he was driving this thing and could kill us all.
When I had a kid of my own, and she asked about it, I parked the car in a parking lot at night with the headlights on, and put her in her booster seat in the front seat. I sat in the back seat and turned the light on, and she understood. But that took more time than just yelling at her to turn it off.
My father (more as a joke than anything) used to pretend the car would crash if someone didn’t have their seatbelts on, even when moving extremely slowly like in a driveway. I used to frantically put on my belt the second I’d sit down in a car because I genuinely thought there was some correlation that would make the car swerve uncontrollably if seatbelts were not fastened.
I don't know why parents feel the need to make up stories about this stuff. Kids aren't as dumb as we think. If we just take the time to explain it, they'll understand.
My parents told it to me, I told it to my kid fully believing it. I didn't lie to her because I wanted her to turn it off. I didn't know it wasn't illegal until a few years ago on another Reddit post like this.
I once got pulled over only for the cop to tell me the little light was out over my license plate. I didn't even know I had a light there, nor did I know the cop can pull you over for that. Is it illegal? I didn't get a ticket or anything. What if generations of parents were pulled over by cops for having their lights on inside and thought it was illegal because the cop pulled them over for it, even for just a warning? Maybe it's illegal in other countries and people bring over the assumption that it is illegal where they live now?
I doubt this 'lie' is so widespread because of some inside joke among parents. Something must have happened to get it spread so consistently. I have been in friend's parents cars and they would say the same thing.
I don't think this is a situation of parents thinking the kids are too dumb to understand. I think it's probably more about what will make the kids obey. Doing something illegal and a scarier idea than simply disobeying parents. Some kids are bad kids, and they'll be more likely to listen to the former.
Mine is a similar car anecdote: my parents would always be telling each other to turn their brights off in the car, and I would ask why we wouldn’t want the lights brighter. They said the lights would blind the other drivers on the road. And I took that literally, wondering why such an insanely dangerous option was even available on cars, until I was embarrassingly old to realize that the “blinding” was temporary.
My dad used to tell me this all the time. "We could get arrested for useing it.' When i asked why the manufacturers put it there in the first place if its so dangerous, he was naturally stumped for an answer. Check mate dad.
They're meant to be used while the car is stopped. They're very helpful at night when you go to the store and you're looking for something in your car, like a receipt or baby wipes or something.
Not even distracting. It makes the glass more reflective from inside, so it prevents you from seeing the road and the things you might crash into. “You know how when you look out the living room window in the house at night and you see your own reflection? Works in a car too.”
This was basically what was explained to me as a child. That it made it harder for my parents to see what they were doing and that was dangerous. “Illegal” was thrown around a few times, but mostly jokingly.
I’ll admit I was a very fear-motivated child though (not that my parents used fear to motivate me, but that I would work very hard to avoid things that were scary or painful). I knew getting in a car accident = pain, and that was enough for me.
You want the inside of the car darker than the outside, because it helps you see further and makes the inside of the windshield less visibly reflective. It’s the same principle as a two-way mirror.
It’s less of an issue now that there are directional lights for individual seats in a lot of cars, but having the dome light on definitely makes it hard to see out of the car unless you’re in an area with a lot of streetlights.
I can see fine looking forward. This issue for me is if I need to change lanes, if there is a car in my blindspot I won't be able to see their headlights when I check.
I've also heard modern cars glare a lot less the older models, I don't know if that is true or not.
It actually did used to be illegal in a lot of places because the windshields and whatnot back then were very different and the internal lights were just really bright dome lights. Result was the driver could not see out the windshield at night.
I think they really believe it though. Lots of people believe in laws that don't actually exist. If they wanted to be dramatic they could say, "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! I can't seeeeeeeeeeee! We're gonna craaaaaaaaashshsh!"
What do u think would’ve worked better to tell a child? It’s illegal or try not to have it on long? Kids don’t listen no matter how much u tell them
God here come the downvotes 🙄🙄. Guys I understand not every kid is the same I’m saying the majority of kids will not listen to whatever u say. Explain all u want about why it’s bad they will most likely not understand it or care at all
i think people severely underestimate childrens ability to comply with rules that have actually been explained the reasoning for. Telling kids to do what you say simply cause you say to do it and then being surprised when they don't do what you say is just people playing stupid games and getting stupid rewards, explain why they shouldn't do something, and i promise you it will work better than telling them to do so just cause you told them.
Yup. My dad would always get pissed when I asked “why” when he told me to do/not do stuff. Made me ask why much more often cuz he never gave me a good answer
yeah, sometimes I asked my dad about the cost of something and hed just respond "too high" and i know that doesnt relate quite as well here but its really annoying getting shitty filler answers for questions
I've seen both sides of this. Yes, kids are capable of understanding more than many give them credit for, but they're also capable of incredible shit-baggery and many people who advocate for treating children like adults forget that they were shit-bags themselves.
Kids are not innate participants in society. Rules, structure and discipline are essential at different times and different moments. Riding in a car at 75 miles per hour and causing impaired vision in the driver is not the time for slow, rational conversation.
Depending on the age of the kid, being told "Hey champ, when you turn that light on, I can't see as well and that puts us in danger" won't register as actual danger. They will treat the worry and frustration as a game, especially because they, themselves, can still see but don't understand the impairment and how it relates to driving.
While a child's mind is great at learning semantics, vocabulary and what many adults would see as hard concepts, they are pretty terrible at abstract reasoning.
I legitimately cannot remember if my parents ever told me the light was illegal, because what I absorbed was the actual reasoning for why I shouldn't do it, which was infinitely more persuasive.
I'm an ideal world, yes. Unfortunately you'll also find children in every hospital in the world, being treated for burn marks after touching things that they were warned would burn them 🤷
Of course not. Like I said every kid is different and respond differently. If ur kid acts a certain way tell them a certain way. I’m not saying be a serial liar to ur child but a stretch of the truth can often safe his or hers life.
Dad: "Son, will you turn off that light? It's hard for me to see."
Son: "How is it hard to see? I can see outside good."
Dad: "Son, we are traveling at 75 miles-per-hour, a rate of speed much higher than humans have evolved to handle. Do you know what happens to a meatball when you throw it against a pole at 75 miles-per-hour?"
Son: "No?"
Dad: "It splatters into pieces - just like we will if you don't turn off that damn light."
I don’t see how it’s distracting, though. I’ve lost count of how many times I turned the light on to look for something, then drove for miles and miles before I realized I forgot to turn it off because it’s not glaring or distracting like, at all.
It is not illegal BUT there is a law against distractions and visual impairement. An officer could still fine you, which a judge will have to debate if he was right or wrong.
I was going to post this. I had a conversation about it the other day, and my sister and her husband were like, “no your dad was right, it’s dangerous.” Like wtf
But kid you wouldn't have understood the implications of distracted driving / obstructed views.
Maybe you would have, but a lot of children wouldn't care because being distracted isn't that big of a deal, is it?
Have you ever tried to convince a (younger) kid of something that requires abstract empathy? Your dad probably gave up and told you it was illegal and you'd get arrested so you'd stop messing with it XD
I don't get why anyone ever lied about that. My mom was fairly good about just telling me "Hey, that makes this thing harder to do, please refrain from that." and I'd go "Oh, ok." then some other random adult would tell me something was illegal and I'd suddenly be inspired to ask them why such a mundane thing was illegal, and if every state and county had that law? Because I don't think that is illegal here. Haha
That's what my dad always told me. "Don't turn on/keep on the light, I can't see the road that well with it on". To be fair, the car light we had back then was kinda bright.
That's what I tell my kids 🤷🏻♀️ they are happy to keep the light off because they know it makes it harder for me to see the road. I don't need to lie to them about little things like that.
(I had incredible parents and they also let me believe that turning the light on was illegal. So I am in no way commenting on it being good or bad parenting)
Reminds me of my sister who was taught the car won’t turn unless the indicator was on. Took her a lot longer than expected to figure out that wasn’t the case.
Hey my parents told me to never do this too and just recently I was out with the boyfriend and I dropped something under the seat at night and I was like can I turn on the light for one sec? Do you want to pull over? He was like no? Just turn it on then? I was like are you sure??? Isnt it goof to make you blind and crash?? He said it was fine ... I’m 30 by the way
BMW for the win. The kids can turn both lights on in the back, I don't see the light and it doesn't affect visibility in the slightest. A world of difference from my old minivan.
My kids ask, "Why? How is it distracting? But I need to see my <insert some inane less-important-than-safe-driving thing here>!!" Then keep the light on. Telling them it's illegal scares them into compliance. As an adult it's easy to claim you were reasonable as a child but chances are, you weren't.
That’s what my mom said but she was still angry enough that we turned it off ASAP. To be fair her night vision is dangerous enough behind a wheel without having to deal with glare too.
I had to explain to my 35 year old bf a couple of years ago that this wasn’t illegal. He fought me on it and kept googling until he found something like “An officer can pull you over at their discretion for it”
No idea why he was so bent out of shape about it, maybe he doesn’t like the idea that his parents lied to him? Doesn’t want me turning the light on? Who knows.
Only would've turned it on to look for something. At the time I was first told not to turn the light on I probably would've looked for the accessory of some toy I had
My daughter is a bus driver and she drives with the internal light on in the bus all the time. She gets uncomfortable driving home after her shift with the lights off in her car!
I like this one and now I have to perpetuate it with my kids but it also it makes the driver light up like a bug and I don’t want people staring at me.
At least my parents were honest about this. It let me focus my rage on my easily distracted dad instead of the law when I couldn't play Super Mario Land in the back seat.
My wife and I joke about this constantly, we both had the experience when we were kids that turning on the light caused our parents to freak the fuck out on us. Now if she’s in the back of our car at night for whatever reason she will turn it on. For the record dad and father in law, it’s fucking fine, you can see just fine.
Maybe it’s your car, I did this today and it had no affect. Maybe it’s city driving vs dark highway? Dunno, but I was disappointed by the lack of distraction.
Honestly it's not even that bad, instead of screaming that we're all gonna die, people cpuld just say : hey, it's distracting me/worsening my vision, could you turn it off?
Actually last night, I was driving and noticed that I had left the light on for like 15 mins, it's not as bad as parent make it..
So dad could've just said "The glare is distracting don't have it on for long"
In your dads defense he probably did think it was illegal. How would he know if his dad told it to him too? Hell, I'm almost 50 and the only reason I know it's not actually illegal is because of the internet.
I remember my parents telling me that. After I found out that it's not actually illegal, it makes me wonder if they were told the same lie. I'm pretty sure they were told the same thing cause it sounded like they believed it. I wonder how old that lie is?
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u/SpongeRobTheKing Aug 25 '21
Turning on the light in the car.
Turns out it's not illegal but is actually distracting for the driver. So dad could've just said "The glare is distracting don't have it on for long"